1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a POS (Point-Of-Sales) server (server for managing information at point of sales), a local terminal at a store, a POS system, a method of dealing management and a recording medium. This invention relates especially to a POS server for managing deals of products at a plurality of stores, local terminals connected with the POS server, a POS system having the POS server and local terminals, a method of dealing management and a recording medium storing a program for above object.
2. Description of the Related Art
A POS system is usually applied for sales management in retail business area such as a convenience store and a supermarket. A local terminal connecting with the POS server through LAN (Local Area Network) is provided at a store. When there is a plurality of stores in case of chain store or the like, a single POS server may manage a plurality of local terminals provided at different stores.
When a product is sold at the store, a price attached on the product and a barcode printed or stuck on a packaging are read with a scanner and the local terminal counts sales of the product.
Regardless of the number of local terminals provided at the store, the POS server communicating with an upper server at a central office is usually installed at the store so as to build a client-server system.
It requires a large cost to build a usual POS system. If the server is installed at a local terminal side, maintenance of the local terminal is required.
To connect the POS server at the store and the upper server at the central office all day costs uneconomically. Therefore, the POS server may transmit and receive data between the upper server at several times of connection per day. Thereby, timing for transmitting and receiving information is restricted so that a new master file of products and other information cannot be transmitted and received at required timing. To build the upper server which can communicate with a lot of local terminals simultaneously by one-to-one costs a great deal.
To overcome the above drawback, one object of this invention is to provide a POS server, a local terminal, a POS system, a method of dealing management, and a recording medium. The object is reached by combining features described in independent claims in this invention. Depending claims limit more advantageous physical examples according to this invention.